Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Y Combinator Startups Now Have A Combined Valuation Of $13.7 Billion

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 26 posts

Re: Y Combinator Startups Now Have A Combined Valuation Of $13.7 Billion

#5

Post by orenbarzilai »

codex wrote: post #3

And Sequoia backed startups now have a combined valuation of almost a trillion. These statistics are a bit meaningless. I'll wager that the median YC company has a negative opportunity cost for the founders.

It's about showing that YC startups success rate it much higher than the none YC startups. Several statistics support this claim, such as the average seed round for YC company (see: https://angel.co/valuations)

Re: Y Combinator Startups Now Have A Combined Valuation Of $13.7 Billion

#7

Post by reitzensteinm »

codex wrote: post #3

And Sequoia backed startups now have a combined valuation of almost a trillion. These statistics are a bit meaningless. I'll wager that the median YC company has a negative opportunity cost for the founders.

You complain about meaningless statistics and in the next breath introduce one of your own.

The median outcome of asking someone out, applying for a job, learning an instrument, starting a side project, writing a novel, picking up a sport, learning a language and any other of the thousands of things that make life interesting are all negative.

You fail, yielding zero value, and you could have done something safer with your time instead. But that's not a reason to not take chances.

If your startup fails, you can always go back to that cushy job at Microsoft. You're out 6-12 months - who cares?

Do you believe that the median YC graduate regrets their decision to enter the program?

Re: Y Combinator Startups Now Have A Combined Valuation Of $13.7 Billion

#8

Post by arbuge »

codex wrote: post #3

And Sequoia backed startups now have a combined valuation of almost a trillion. These statistics are a bit meaningless. I'll wager that the median YC company has a negative opportunity cost for the founders.

The number quoted is anything but meaningless - it's the best estimate out there of the value of these companies right now.

Sequoia has been at work for alot more time than YC, and put alot more money to work than YC in that time. YC has a stake of at least several percent of that $13.7B figure, translating into about a billion of its own now by my reckoning. Doing pretty well I'd say.

With incubators, as with musicians, things seem to gravitate towards a superstar economy with rich rewards for the top handful of players in the Valley, and peanuts for your average village incubator in the sticks.

Re: Y Combinator Startups Now Have A Combined Valuation Of $13.7 Billion

#9

Post by orenbarzilai »

arbuge wrote: post #8
codex wrote: post #3

And Sequoia backed startups now have a combined valuation of almost a trillion. These statistics are a bit meaningless. I'll wager that the median YC company has a negative opportunity cost for the founders.

The number quoted is anything but meaningless - it's the best estimate out there of the value of these companies right now. Sequoia has been at work for alot more time than YC, and put alot more money to work than YC in that time. YC has a stake of at least several percent of that $13.7B figure, translating into about a billion of its own now by my reckoning. Doing pretty well I'd say. With incubators, as with musici…

As some body here already mentioned, the "unsuccessful" founders can always go back to work at Microsoft/fb/google etc, unlike the unsuccessful musicians... But I agree with the analogy.
Post reply on HN